Ranking some tall, floor-stretchers

[kovanovich]

Murphy's been my #1 target this season. However if we DO trade for him I can't see the Pacers taking only an expiring contract - I'm thinking they'll want a bit of talent, too. He's one of their cornerstone players.

As we saw with Utah and Maynor is that in order to avoid luxury tax, teams will be willing to jettison assets. Indiana's team salary is slated to be $64m plus in 2010-11, not counting their first round pick, which would very likely put them into the luxury tax. Now I'm sure they'll be able to find another way to get under the luxury tax line between now and the end of next season, but trading Murphy for an expiring would pretty much solve that problem. The 2010 draft is supposed to be strong in PFs, and with a decently high pick they'll be in a position to address the loss of Murphy. They also have Hansbrough, and early this year when Murphy was out, the Pacers actually played well with Granger and Dahntay Jones at the forward spots. And Murphy is going to be 30 next year...

Anyway, who knows what Indiana will be willing to take for Murphy? On paper, Washington and New Orleans would seem to be more desperate to cut payroll, but again we'll see how motivated they are. It will be interesting to see how Ferry approaches this. I think that Bill Simmons' fanciful article did illustrate that, at least as things now stand, there may not be a lot of buyers for a veteran PF.